I felt tugged from several directions. From adult intersexuals who were angry at the medical care they had been given as children and who told heartwrenching stories about childhoods of embarassment and humiliation and improvident medicine. And from physicians who had struggled to arrive at medical treatments for patients with baffling conditions when few answers were available.

You, dear reader, can judge whether I've succeeded in maintaining impartiality.

As is always the case in journalism, much of the information I gathered for this story never made it to print. But some of those unused interviews are what continue to resonate with me most, in particular conversations I had with intersexual adults including those who have spent time on both sides of the gender role dividing line.

Whether that line is drawn by biology or society is still unclear; however, most of us never truly cross from one side to the realm on the other. One of the intersexed told me: "People think they have the gender thing figured out: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.' I think learning about intersex reminds everybody we're from Earth. We're not Rambo or Madonna. We're more similar than you'd think."

RETURN TO SEPTEMBER 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS.